


I Wait on You (Inside the Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea)

by orphan_account



Series: Assassination and Feelings (The Remix) [2]
Category: The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: Backstory, F/M, Fake Chop, Flashbacks, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-01-17 00:42:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12353865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Backstory and Continuation of "It happened when..."Anna goes to med school, thinks about her past, and realizes some things about her future.





	1. Welcome to My Cage, Little Lover

**Author's Note:**

> Title and chapter titles are from the Missio song, "Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea."

Anna grew up as a silent girl in a loud world. Even if she wanted to, she wasn’t allowed to match the same level of personality or action of her brothers. Her mother would claim it was for her protection. But her father always said, and his word is law here, that is was because women were only meant to be seen. And as his daughter, Anna knew he didn’t even want her to be seen. Somedays, he didn’t even want her to exist.

She’s fifteen when she cuts off all contact with her father. She still doesn’t like to think about the day she found her mother bruised and crying quietly on the couch while her father’s second and one of the newbies smoke in the kitchen. She turns around and leaves that day.

Her mom had begged and screamed and threatened to try to get her to come back. Saying things like, Anna, you weren’t there you don’t know what happened. But Anna has eyes and she’s seen enough. Her mom had switched tactics and said, Anna, this is how it is. But Anna saw a couple last year, they were tourists just driving through town but they weren’t like that. Mom, this isn’t how it has to be. Just leave him, please. It hurts you too.

They can’t speak anymore without the previous arguments hanging over them. Their phone conversations are minefields, at least Anna has the failsafe ability to hang up.

But Anna was young and overconfident. Looking back on her younger years after being at Fake Chop, she can’t believe how much faith she placed in the people in her life that really didn’t deserve it. How much faith she placed in herself and her ability to escape. Her mother told her she could be whatever she wanted to be, but when it came down to it, Anna couldn’t. That hadn’t quite sunk in when she first met Asher.

Well, they didn’t really meet. At least, not yet.

Anna was seventeen and walking from her afterschool job to the corner where her brother was supposed to meet her. Ever since she left her childhood home, she alternated which brother and friend she stayed with. This time she was with her second oldest brother, Tommy. She hadn’t quite reached the corner when she heard yelling and cursing. She didn’t run towards it, but she didn’t turn around either.

Anna doesn’t have to go far to recognize that Tommy is the one yelling. That’s unsurprising. He’s the loudest man she’s ever met.

When she does walk around the corner, what she does find surprising is why he’s yelling. There’s a boy, he looks so young but he can’t be that much younger than Anna herself, and he’s sitting on top of Tommy’s bike.

The bike is comically large underneath the boy and there’s no way anyone is dumb enough to try to drive a machine that much bigger than them, but the boy does. To give him credit, he lasts longer than Anna expects before losing control.

“Who the fuck raised you?!” Tommy yells. “I’m gonna skin you!”

Tommy huffs when he runs after the boy. Even after crashing a bike into a parked car, the boy still easily hops off and darts down the street out of Tommy’s grip. Tommy does a quick glance around, sees that Anna is the only one on the street, and pulls out his gun to get a few shots off.

He’s not concerned. It wouldn’t be the first time Anna has watched him kill someone. But this is the first she’s rooting for the other guy to stay alive.

The boy makes it into an alley and out of sight.

Anna is impressed, not by the running away from Tommy part because that’s easy. But by the guts that the boy displays by stealing the bike and sticking with it even with Tommy threatening him and shooting at him. That kind of bravado is outstanding. And if there’s a swooping feeling in her stomach, then it’s just because Anna is jealous of the boy’s defiance. Nothing else.

Anna catches up with where Tommy is doubled-over panting in short time. Her brother might have made it further after the boy if he didn’t smoke a pack and a half a day. But that’s an argument they’ve had before and Anna isn’t into repeating herself.

She slaps a little at Tommy’s back and waits for him to catch his breath.

“You know that kid from school?” Tommy asks.

“Nope,” Anna says letting the ‘p’ pop off her tongue.

“I think he’s a drifter,” Tommy nods. “He either doesn't know what this means” –Tommy points at his cut like Anna wouldn’t know what he was talking about- “or he’s too young to know better than to fuck with a member of the Hail Marys.”

Anna just nods and doesn’t think any more of it.

\----------------

Anna is walking out of class when she sees the text. It’s time stamped before her lab even began and she feels completely justified in shoving classmates out of her way and running through the halls.

Stupid professors, they can fucking hear when her phone vibrates and she can’t have them giving her shit or deducting points for being on her phone. She needs to be reachable and she can’t be reachable without a phone. But she’s not reachable if her phone is on silent. This doesn’t work.

Asher is waiting for her where he said he would be.

“Sorry!” she calls as she gets closer.

He opens the passenger door and then goes to get in the driver’s seat. Anna skids into the car and slams the door behind her.

“How bad are they? What were they doing?” Anna asks. “And where are they?”

Asher guns it before Anna has finished her first sentence.

“They’re not terrible, but both of them will need stitches and my hands are still too shaky to make them straight.” Asher starts. “We were hitting up one of the disputed roads when we were jumped by some small fries.”

“We?” Anna almost screeches and takes stock of Asher.

He’s wearing sunglasses but he doesn’t stop her from reaching over and plucking them off his face. He has one black eye and his eyebrow is split. She sees now that his bottom lips are puffy and his knuckles are bloody.

“You were waiting outside like this? Is there anything else?” Anna asks.

“Yeah, these college kids are kind of oblivious,” Asher says. “You’re gonna need to check my ribs for me.”

“Okay,” Anna says. She can do that. “Okay. What else?”

“Well, before I was interrupted, I was saying that we were jumped on that one street, you know in the South of our area,” Asher asks and Anna nods to keep him talking. His speech is fine and his eyes are properly dilating so he’s probably fine. “We fucked the other guys up but got a little bloody in the process. You know how head wounds are, they bleed a lot.”

“You, Joe, and Trevor?”

“Yeah.”

“What,” she says flatly. “Were you bored?”

There’s a little bit of silence and Asher drives over the double yellow lines and passes some middle age fuck with a car to compensate for something to get them to the base faster.

“Yeah, I was,” he admits like it hurts him. If he keeps acting reckless, Anna is going to make it hurt him.

“Why?”

“You’re busy with school during the day. I miss you,” Asher says. “And when you are with me, you’re still stressing about school or doing homework. I’m not used to it.”

Anna melts.

She can’t say anything for fear of it coming off differently than she wants it too. But she and Asher, they’re not James and Aleks. Those two only communicate in a meaningful way twice a year and the rest of the time they have screaming matches. She has to say something to let Asher know that it’s okay, and she feels the same.

They’re pulling into the driveway of the new Slaughter House (or James’ old house) when she settles on what to say.

“I know,” Anna blurts out in a very speak-now-or-forever-hold-your-peace kind of way. “I know, I feel the same way. I miss you.”

Asher nods and starts to unbuckle his seatbelt, but Anna stops him.

“This- med school is very important to me,” Anna says. Asher sighs so Anna hurries through the next part. “But you’re more important to me.”

Asher smiles as much as he can with his face the way it is.

“You’re important to me too.” He mumbles.

“Yes, and if keeping you and going to school means changing things a little, just let me know what to do,” Anna says.

Asher grabs her hand.

“We’re good. I just need to adjust.” He says and kisses the back of her hand. Anna wills down her rising blush.

“And if we’re not good, then you need to tell me.” She prompts him.

Asher nods.

-

Asher was right. Joe and Trevor will be alright and mostly just need stitches. One of the other guys had grabbed a broken bottle and managed to slash Joe’s forehead towards the corner of his left eye. It’s shallow where it ends an inch from his eye and Anna is glad he was able to jerk out of reach of the bottle. He could’ve lost his eye.

And then there’s Trevor. He has a gash across his cheek from the same bottle. His cut is definitely going to scar.

“I’m the Joker, baby.” He says.

Aleks laughs from behind Anna’s shoulder. Asher groans and starts to rib him about the scar placement.  Lindsey continues to scold the boys for thinking this was a good idea and Aleks for (unsurprisingly) encouraging them. Anna finishes up the stitches with the sounds of her crew around her. When she tries to get Asher’s attention so they can leave Joe beckons her over instead.

“Hey,” he says. “How’s school?”

“It’s good. A lot but it’s good.” Anna responds.

“Okay, cool,” Joe says and takes a breath before glancing over her shoulder. “How are you and Asher?”

Anna feels her smile stiffen. She has to ask, “Why does it seem like something’s off?”

“No, no no, no.” Joe waves his hands a bit. “Just wondering.”

Anna stares him down until he answers.

“I just don’t see him as much as I expected to with you in school,” Joe admits.

“Oh,” Anna says. “I don’t know. This is a big change for both of us, but we’re trying to make it work.”

“Okay, let me know if I can help in any way,” Joe says and his easy grin slips back over his face.

Brett, James, and Jakob come into the living room and the noise level immediately increases tenfold.

James is both congratulating and yelling at the Trevor, Asher, and Joe. Aleks is standing to the side and laughing at all of them as they start to argue with James. For once, Aleks looks like he’s in love with James and not afraid of it. Which is good because spending an extended amount of time listening to Aleks complain about James and being in love with him is not something Anna has a lot of time for now.

Lindsey and Brett are waiting out the storm in the kitchen.

“Hey Brett, is it cool if I grab Asher and get out of here?” Anna asks.

“Got class?” asks Brett.

“No, I missed my last class while stitching up Joe and Trevor,” says Anna.

“Any school work due tonight?”

“Nothing I haven’t finished already.”

“Got a hot date?” asks Brett and he wriggles his eyebrows ridiculously. Lindsey snorts into her drink.

“No,” Anna laughs.

Brett nods and walks into the living room.

“Crew movie night!” he declares. “Anyone who isn’t named James gets to pick the movie.”

Anna smiles at Brett’s wink and watches the squabbling begin. She’s mostly through her first semester, so it hasn’t been more than a month or so since she’s seen the crew all in one place. But it feels like years since she was able to hang out with any of them.


	2. Time to Rearrange With You, Baby

Anna doesn’t see the boy again for two years. Well, she sees him around. He and his friends (if they can be called that, more like his makeshift crew) like to fuck with the Hail Mary MC and Anna occasionally lives with the members that they fuck with. But the point is she doesn’t have any direct interaction with him for two more years. Doesn’t meet him until she’s nineteen and losing her mind.

Anna is in her second year at the state school in the city- she graduated a year early from high school and she’s determined to graduate early from college as well. It’s a forty minute commute to school every day, and then she works two jobs at a bar in the city. Technically, she’s only a waitress there. But on the weekends when they’re busy or when Alice is too drunk to be trusted running the downstairs bars alone or when Benny licks his lips and asks her to help him out upstairs, Anna makes 15 an hour under the table.

She needs that money, but she also needs experience in the medical field. Which is why when she finally meets Asher, it’s when she’s waitressing and trying to use the down time to study for her EMT certificate.

He saunters in and Anna’s eyes snap to him. It’s hard to make an entrance when there’s only the two of them, but Anna’s inherent paranoia make it easier than it would be otherwise.

But the boy saunters in and Anna knows who he is and how she knows him the moment she lays eyes on him. She's glad he's still alive. Of course, he survived the crash, but Tommy had talked some shit about finding him and "teaching him a lesson" with enough cruelty that it shouldn't be surprising that Tommy now has a "Second to None" patch on his cut now. Their father had also ripped into Tommy in front of most of the MC and that might have been the inspiration behind Tommy's threats.

The boy had vanished from town before Tommy could do anything. Anna knows it was for the best. He’s popped up, fucked with Tommy as well as other members of the MC, and then vanished enough times to for Anna to know he’s stupid crazy and crazy stupid in equal measures. Thankfully Tommy and the others are 40 minutes away and too high to do anything harmful today.

Anna looks around the empty room and calls to him, "You can pick a table I'll be over in a minute. Can I help you with anything right now?"

"Nah," the boy says. "Not yet."

He walks over and sits at the bar next to the notes that Anna has spread out. He flinches when he sees the gory, medical pictures.

"What are you-" he begins. Anna shoves her notebook in her textbook and slams it all shut. The noise makes him jump. He's not gonna get far or last long if he keeps up like this.

"I'll grab you a menu," Anna says.

She slips her study materials behind the bar and walks to the main hostess station to grab him a menu. She takes a deep breath when she grabs it. He's just a boy. Yeah, he invaded Anna's space and reminds her too much of Tommy and all of her family's poor choices, but he's just a boy.

She walks back and forces calm down her spine and into her heart. He might be annoying her, but so do a lot of things. He's no worse than the average customer. She hates when they ask her personal questions, she just wants to do her job and then go home. She doesn't want to make friends.

He's watching her from where he's sitting at the bar, turned almost all the way around to watch her. He doesn't turn his face and pretend that he wasn't watching her. This boy is shameless. When Anna slides him a menu, he grins ear to ear. He looks like a fox and Anna is already not here for whatever it is that he has to say.

"So," he tries.

"Do you already know what you want to order?" Anna interrupts.

"No, but can I ask a question?"

"Sure?"

"Well, I have a favor to ask-" he begins. "Wait, what's your name?"

Anna raises an eyebrow. She points to the nametag that reads, "Amanda."

"Okay, thanks." The boy says. He grins again. Anna almost cringes, he's trying so hard to be smooth. "Amanda, can I sit out on the patio?"

Anna looks the boy up and down. He's wearing scuffed boots and jeans that have seen better days, but his coat looks new and warm and perfect for the late fall freeze.

"Depends. Will you sue us if you freeze to death?"

"Are you planning on locking me out there for long enough that death is a possibility?" the boy asks.

"Not planning on it. Considering it though."

He makes an affronted noise and places his hand on his chest. Anna can't help herself and she laughs.

"Here," she says as she taps on the menu. "Just order first and then I'll bring it to you out there."

The boy grins again. But this one is different, it looks real and Anna should not be nearly as entranced as she is. He flips her a little salute.

"What's your name?" Anna feels compelled to ask.

"Evan," the boy says. And Evan turns back to the menu.

He tries to order a beer with his meal and Anna just laughs. If he’s older than her, then she’ll eat one of her car’s tires. He tries to show her an ID but it's the fakest fake that she has seen since she started.

"Get a better fake," she says as she slides it back to him. He frowns.

"It usually works just fine," he says like he's actually confused.

"There's a lot of students with money around here," she offers. "There's a lot of bars that let fakes slide because they make enough money off the students that they can afford the fines."

"And this fine establishment can't?" asks Evan with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, they can." Anna grins at him. "But I'm not going to jail for you."

\------------

The movie night was a rousing success, according to Brett. But Anna knows that's because of how he, like most of the crew, fell asleep and didn't watch the third movie. The only two left awake were Anna, Aleks, and James.

Anna pretended to be asleep because Asher was laying on her lap and she didn't want to wake him. She wanted instead to stare at his face and trace with her eyes the all the places that she knew he would have lines one day. James and Aleks were entwined and whispering to each other. Probably not sweet nothings, it's probably insults and threats. They are weird.

So Anna pretended to be asleep and was subjected to the shit movie that made James cackle when he hit play on the remote. She regrets that now.

The next day at school is no worse than any day when she's fully rested because she swiped Brett's credit card and bought herself a lot of coffee. The barista had stared at her in horror when she asked for six shots of espresso and three pumps of caramel.

Brett sent a text that said, "im canceling ur card young lady." And then he immediately followed it up with one that said: "i love you, have a good day!!"

Anna laughs on her way into her next class. One of the boys that sits to her right eyes her strangely, but he can suck her dick. She's confident that she absolutely killed it on their last chem test and she remembers that he, well, he cried outside the classroom afterward. Anna feels bad for thinking that but she always waits until she's alone in her apartment before she cries about schoolwork. And sometimes, crying in private is the only victory she's had that day.

Anna drives herself home in Asher's car. He had driven her to campus and then stumbled off towards some dorms with a wave and a "Don't wait for me!" called over his shoulder. Asher does some nice little side business for Fake Chop by hustling rich, overconfident college boys out of cash and other valuables.

(Anna went to one college party with him and saw him work the crowd first hand. It was fucking beautiful to watch and Asher grabbed her a cute necklace from one of the sorority girls. When the crowd had noticed he was with her, they were still too drunk to realize that he had scammed them so Anna didn't worry about it. But that meant she wasn't paying attention when Asher introduced her as his girlfriend.

One of the boys whistled and one of the girls called something crude, so Asher spun Anna like he learned in that ballroom dance class they took before Fake Chop and dipped her. He turned his head like he was kissing her. Breathless from the move, Anna could do nothing but hold on and stare into his eyes.

Asher's eyes were his dead, I'm-working eyes and Anna couldn't read anything from them. She didn't know what her own eyes were telling him. Maybe she didn't want to know.

After he let her up, Anna had no time to analyze the feeling in her stomach because it was time to move. One of the party-goers was patting their pockets and looking for something. Anna couldn't hear what it was so she couldn't be sure which one of them took it.)

Anna is pulling into Asher's usual spot outside their apartment when Aleks calls her.

"What's wrong?" she asks and shuts the car door.

"Can't I call just because I want to chat?" Aleks asks while Anna swings her backpack over her shoulder and starts up the stairs to her apartment.

"Not in my experience," Anna says. She hears Aleks snort on the other end of the line. "Usually if just want to chat, you show up drunk when you know Asher isn't here."

Aleks laughs and Anna can hear an echoing laugh from inside her apartment as she unlocks the door. There are no scratches on the lock so it wasn't picked. She hangs up the phone.

She finds James and Aleks inside her apartment. James is standing in the kitchen with his shoulders hunched and hands stuffed into his pockets. Aleks is lounging on the couch with his god-awful sunglasses on.

("They're a sign of respect!" Aleks had said when Anna mentioned how awful they are.

"They're a sign of too much money," Anna had said while Aleks cradled them in his hands like they were something more precious than Mishka.)

"Aleks, I'm taking your key away," says Anna.

"No can do," says Aleks. "I'm here on official business."

Anna looks back and forth between where James is running a hand over his tired eyes and into his messed up hair, and where Aleks is forcing himself to look relaxed. His sunglasses aren't large enough to cover up the tightness around his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Anna asks.

She looks back and forth between them. Neither of them speaks.

"We were contacted by the Hail Marys today," says James after far too long.

Anna feels her stomach jump into her throat. She feels herself speak, but she's not sure what she says. James shakes his head.

"Some guy named Tom contacted us. They're calling for a meeting at a bar. If we put you and Asher undercover as bartenders, will you be recognized?"

"Yes," Anna hears herself say. "We both will. But it might be okay, Tommy liked me more than any of my other brothers."

To their credit, neither James or Aleks let any surprise cross their features. It's not like Fake Chop shares a lot of personal information. They all like each other, but they're still a young crew.

"But," Anna says. "When my dad was in charge, Tommy was his Sergeant-at-Arms."

Aleks nods from where he's sitting.

"It's not like they don't know we're going to put our people in place. They're going to do the same," says Aleks.

"Yes," James agrees. "But that doesn't mean we have to antagonize them."

"Why the fuck not?" Aleks demands. "They're based in Colorado, we're here in SoCal. There's no point to fighting with us so why can't we just show off our people a little."

"He might get a kick out of it," Anna cuts in while James is drawing in breath to speak.

"Who?" James asks.

"Tommy, when I lived with him, I worked at a bar." Anna hurries to say. "And he knows that's where I met Asher."

Aleks flips his hands in the air and James huffs from the kitchen.

"Then it's settled," Aleks says and he stands up. "You and Asher can bartend on Saturday night while James and I talk to your brother."

James nods and starts to follow Aleks out. He places a hand on Anna's shoulder before she can shut the door behind him.

"You okay with this?" he asks. Anna nods and he leaves.


	3. Notes for continuation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I will not finish this fic, but here are the notes I had for the writing process.

 

P3- Still Don’t Know Your Name, Miss Honey

Back story- Asher is chilling at the bar staking out a nearby bank (Anna figures out what’s up)- he and Anna start chatting, her coworkers make jokes, there’s a busy night and he hops back and helps her behind the bar

Evan is sitting at the outside bar again when Anna comes into work. This is easily the fifth time he’s sat in that very seat. At least, when Anna’s been there. She doesn’t work every night, but she’s pretty sure that he’s been there for the past two weeks. Anna asked the other bartender (Marsha, 32, has two kids aged 16 and 14, always looks through people and stares at a wall instead) and gets confirmation that he’s been there. Exactly where she knew he would be.

Evan nods at Anna when she brings over a soda to him. He looks tired. He has such heavy bags under his eyes that it makes Anna’s heart hurt. He’s going to be useless on this heist. He either needs to step down or his crew needs to step up.

“Hey, you look terrible,” says Anna.

“Thanks,” says Evan. “You look beautiful.”

Anna looks down and feels her face heat. She sets down Evan’s soda. He raises it in a cheerful gesture as she turns and hurries back to the bar with no more words.

Anna doesn’t feel beautiful. She woke up at four this morning after getting home and passing out at eleven last night. She fell asleep before she could do any homework and she woke up in a cold, sweaty panic. She worked for four hours before she looked at the clock and had to speed the whole drive to school. She had a full day of classes and now she’s here.

Her hair is tossed up and her make up is mostly just cover up that’s mostly worn off and Evan thinks she’s beautiful. Anna doesn’t think he’s lying to her- what does he have to gain by lying? But she doesn’t know how to take it.

She’s still blushing when she reaches the bar to Marsha’s empty gaze. Marsha takes in Anna’s discomfort and turns back to washing glasses with no comment. Thankfully, no one else is behind the bar.

Benny, however, is watching from near the kitchen and he doesn’t let it slide.

Benny is the owner of the bar and the man who hired Anna to work under the table because he owed one of her brothers a favor. Anna’s brother, Mark (her least favorite, he once set her bed on fire because he found her cuddling with her girlfriend in there. He firmly believes that it’s just a phase and that Anna is just making it up. Anna was thirteen and dated that girl for six years), did him a favor and scared the shit out of a cop that was trying to catch Benny knowingly serving underage kid.

Anna is grateful for the job but she hates working for Benny. Mark and Benny are too similar for Anna to be comfortable with the situation. Mark’s gazes always wandered along Anna’s friends’ bodies with too much interest and Benny’s eyes do the same to Anna. At least Mark is her brother and that draws a line in his mind. Benny has no such line.

 

Present day- go to a bar with crew for the meeting (Tommy wanted to grill Aleks and James to see if Anna is being taken care of properly), pretend to make out in an alley to hide from cops

 

P4- Let’s Go Up in Flames, Pretty Lady

Back story- Anna finds Asher abandoned by his crew in the alley behind the bar, tells work that she’s sick and takes him home to patch him up, he tries to give her some money for her troubles but she lectures him about being safe and he’s like then come with me next time

Present day- Aleks pairs them together on an assignment, at the end Anna tells Asher that she’s in love with him

Anna sees the blood when she’s walking into work that night. She just parked near the back alley entrance that Alice’s office is right next to. She pulls out the small gun from her glove box that her mom got her years ago. She loads it while she’s sitting in the car and keeps it tucked behind a fold in her skirt. Chances are that she won’t have to use it, but Anna knows that she has no luck.

 

Anna can hear over the coms that Trevor’s coming to pick them up in a helicopter while Brett and Aleks, the maniacs, draws the police attention on the ground. James is screaming at Brett and Aleks over the coms which means he’s not that mad. Anna pushes herself to run up the steps faster.

Asher’s hand is sweaty and hard to hold. He’s only a step or two ahead of her even though Anna had to wear heels for this one. Anna clutches his hand harder and doesn’t stop even when she feels her fingernails puncturing his skin. Asher hasn’t said anything and he probably won’t notice until the adrenaline has left his system.

Anna’s heart is ready to beat out of her chest when they reach the roof exit. Asher bursts out the door first and pulls Anna out along with him. Anna stops and tries to catch her breath while Asher confirms with Trevor where he wants them.

The sun is setting. Casting long shadows over the roof tops and Asher stand between Anna and the sun. He’s backlit by a pink, orange glow and the light emphasizes the tired lines on his face. They were children when they met and they’re young still, but Anna feels as if she’s lived lifetimes with Asher and she’s willing to live a thousand more with him.

Asher turns to face her and holds out the hand Anna was grasping earlier. She reaches out to take it and lets him walk her over the edge where if she looked, Anna would see a helicopter in the distance. Anna doesn’t look away from Asher.

It’s staring at him like this that does it. Standing next to him on a rooftop, the sun setting behind him and Anna doesn’t want to let go of his hand. So she doesn’t. She closes her eyes to the blinding sun and lets the words bubble up and out of her mouth.

“Asher, I love you.” She says.

“I love you too.” Asher says.

“I’m in love with you.” She says.

“I’m in love with you too.” He says.

Anna lets herself smile when she feels his lips brush her cheek.


End file.
